Lab Services

Games for Change offers a suite of paid services to strengthen the field of social impact games, while guiding organizations and individuals who are actively pursuing games to further their mission. The depth of our work can range from the modest to the comprehensive:

1-2 Day Workshops
• Customized agenda, including goals and activities
• Orientation to games for social change and learning
• Interactive arcade of curated games
• Analysis of existing materials
• Deep dive into the 8-Step Methodology (developed with E-Line Media)
• Guided brainstorms to define strategy and game concept

Game Incubation
• Collaborate with funders on grantee training and coaching
• Run grantee summits for orientation and concept creation
• Public contests around a customized theme or social issue
• Oversee prototype creation by contest winners

Featured Case Studies

Together with Pulitzer Prize-winning authors Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, Zynga, Frima Studio and some of the world’s leading NGOs, Games for Change executive produced this next step in the Half the Sky Movement‘s landmark transmedia campaign to transform players’ in-game actions into real-world donations. Launched in March 2013, the game has attracted more than 1.3 million registered players to date, who have contributed nearly $500,000 in direct and sponsored donations.

The game is available in English and French, with Hindi and Swahili versions on the way soon.

More than 65% of the world’s 3.5 billion mobile phone users are in developing countries, where low-cost feature phones are prevalent. With the support of USAID, we piloted three mobile games aimed at underserved communities in India, Kenya, and Tanzania: 9 Minutes (healthy birthing practices), Worm Attack! (deworming awareness), and Family Values (highlighting the place and value of girls in their family). These games were developed and distributed together with Mudlark (UK) and E-Line Media (US).9 Minutes has been evaluated with pregnant women and their spouses in India, and was found to make positive shifts in knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral intentions toward promoted safe pregnancy and delivery actions after playing the game. Read the full evaluation of the game here or see our summary.